Adjective "bleach" definition and examples

(Bleach may not be an adjective, but it can be used as an adjective, click here to find out.)

Pronunciation

/bliːtʃ/

Definitions and examples

verb

Cause (a material such as cloth, paper, or hair) to become white or much lighter by a chemical process or by exposure to sunlight.

'permed and bleached hair'

'I had to gather it up and wash and bleach it to get the muddy paw prints out of the sheets.'

'Morgan stopped and looked up into the sky, the moon shining directly on his long hair, bleaching it so white, he looked like his brother.'

'Sodium chlorite, hypochlorite, perborate, and peroxide are used to bleach paper, cotton, and rayon.'

'Mickey had short bleached-blonde hair and a sandpapery growth of stubble on his chin.'

'CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta says some people have become tooth-bleaching junkies.'

'Her hair was bleached blonde and swaying at her hips.'

'Thick, tousled hair bleached a near white from excessive sunlight twisted about his head, whipping and snagging in the wind's grasp.'

'With each piece of bleached, dead coral washed ashore, the marine ecosystem comes that much closer to being a watery wasteland.'

'Somehow here, this battered and bleached hut is home to many poor people; they live off begged and stolen food, in a room blackened by the smoke of the struggling stove.'

'Paper is traditionally bleached with chlorine and chemicals derived from it (such as chlorine dioxide).'

'I am now standing outside Iona Abbey (although the island is much smaller and flatter than I remember, seemingly bleached of some of its character and wild aspects).'

'A large colour photograph from his shack dweller series has been bleached of its content, the sitter a vague outline, a ghostly presence leached from the scene.'

'Those answers mean a lot, Mosley says, because it's troubling when biracial people seem to bleach away their blackness with European pride.'

'Nikki is a kind of deflated Aussie version of a femme fatale, a strung-out blonde bimbo whose entire personality seems bleached of energy and thought.'

Clean or sterilize (a drain, sink, etc.) with bleach.

'Baths foreman Frank Hardcastle had a four-day job of cleaning the tiles and bleaching the pool floor.'

'It wasn't that bad but we do tend to leave boxes out there that won't fit in the bin and they needed to go, we finished the job off by bleaching and hosing everything down so it's all lovely and clean now.'

'I'm very careful about what I eat and drink; I bleach everything in the condo, I wash my clothes carefully.'

'My mother bleached that damned doll five times, washed it solidly for two days before she would hand it over.'

'If your grout (the material put between tiles to finish the surface and seal against leakage) is discolored, you might want to try and bleach and scrub it clean.'

'Hoovered, washed up and bleached the bathroom, then headed out to work.'

noun

A chemical (typically a solution of sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide) used to make materials whiter or for sterilizing drains, sinks, etc.

'The thread can withstand machine washing without bleach, but should not be ironed directly.'

'If your seedlings succumbed to any diseases last year, make sure the containers are rinsed with a 10% solution of bleach to kill off any remaining spores.'

'This fabric may yellow so it should be bleached frequently with sodium perborate bleach.'

'Be warned, though - many of the more extreme techniques incorporate the use of hydrogen peroxide bleach and are not endorsed under EU laws.'

'I would like to acknowledge the antimicrobial foams and dilute bleach solutions that are helping to disinfect the rest of the building.'

'Mildew can be eliminated by simply adding a small amount of household bleach to the cleaning solution.'

'Liquid bleach used in the laundry is an alkaline solution of hypochlorite ion.'